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The Importance of DrupalCamps

Last updated on Aug 20, 2019

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The Importance of DrupalCamps

What is a DrupalCamp?

Drupal events happen all over the world, all year long. Drupal events called DrupalCamps are 1 to 2-day conventions focused on sharing knowledge and fostering connections among the Drupal community. Attending these camps can provide you and your team with an improved, in-depth skillset.

DrupalCamps x Higher Ed Institutions

September of 2019, O8 is getting involved by sponsoring a DrupalCamp at Cornell.

While higher ed institutions may seem like the perfect partner for these types of camps, this hasn’t always been the case. Traditional schools, whose students are drawn by the value of a degree, have historically felt threatened by coding boot camps. The fear of losing university students to these skill-based camps has always seemed too high of a risk to justify any partnership. In reality, when higher ed institutions partner with coding bootcamps, it benefits students. The theory learned in traditional schools combined with the hard skills learned in camps can bridge the gap between the two educational styles. We applaud Cornell for acknowledging the benefit of pairing theory-based learning and skill-based experiences and wanted to help in any way we could. We love encouraging coding boot camps, and here’s why you should too.

Bootcamp Benefits

Coding bootcamps provide in-demand skills fast. The Cornell DrupalCamp will be held over the course of just two days in September 2019. Over the course of these two days, attendees will receive hands-on education with Git and Composer, learn to define their site’s audiences and objectives, analyze content from a Drupal perspective, translate client and business needs into an information architecture, develop strategies for using taxonomies and landing pages effectively, and create a great experience for content editors. There will also be valuable Keynote speakers and coding competitions. The amount and caliber of knowledge shared over these two days is immediately applicable in the workplace. The main focus of drupal camps is to make sure their students get the training they need to enter the workforce as an entry-level coder.

Beyond the benefit to the students, the higher education institutions partnering with bootcamps can actually increase their enrollment. While colleges and universities can offer courses in computer science and engineering, they most likely focus on theory. They probably don’t offer valuable coding or coding language-specific courses. Giving students access to coding boot camps provides additional value to a degree. Students gain access to real-world skills while graduating from an accredited university, making them more hireable in the eyes of employers.

What are you waiting for?

DrupalCamps provide you with the opportunity to learn from and contribute to the Drupal community. At its core, Drupal is still a village, making the community aspect even more important. Drupal relies on its users to help it improve for the next generation of content management systems and frameworks.